STUDENT SHOUT: YouTube – how low will vloggers stoop for fame?

Portsmouth’s Bar 38 to close its doors tomorrow

When I hear the words ‘famous’ or ‘views’ I automatically think of young people trying to do something for a shot at fame – even if it lasts a day, or just 15 minutes.

From pranking family members, to filming dangerous stunts, when will the young presenters on YouTube channels –known as vloggers (video bloggers) – realise what they are doing can have a negative as well as a positive impact on their fans and, eventually, themselves.

Some have millions of subscribers to their channels – which means big money.

Recently a vlogger called Logan Paul posted a video of a ‘suicide forest’ in Japan. Viewers were shocked and disgusted to see an actual dead body in the film.

Having seen the video myself, I can’t say I’m surprised at his actions, considering YouTubers are trying just about everything to gain even more views, followers and likes.

A few days later Logan uploaded an apology video stating he will not be posting vlogs for a while.

So is this the point where we’re supposed to pretend it never happened and praise him for saying sorry, because he’s only human?

Or do we express our feelings on the impact it has on us through our own vlogs?

I used to watch YouTube when it was good, the golden age of badly edited videos were the highlight of my day after school.

Smosh, Pewdiepie, iJustine, Ryan Higa – the list goes on.

Even Pewdiepie recently went too far when he allegedly paid Indian workers to hold up a discriminating sign, which of course caused a backlash against his channel.

But with technology moving faster than ever before we must expect turbulence and more challenges on YouTube.